Field
The present invention relates to the field of computerized drug identification and more particularly to computer aided visualization for drug identification.
Description of the Related Art
Prescription drug use has become part and parcel of modern society. Though medicinal compositions have always been dispensed for what ails and even for what does not ail, governmental regulation of food and drugs in recent years has resulted in the consolidation of medicinal compositions into two classes of drugs—those that require a prescription and those that do not. Recent advances in technology have made available many drugs formerly requiring a prescription as “over-the-counter” medications requiring no prescription at all. In many cases, over-the-counter versions of a prescription drug are no more than weakened forms of the prescription drug. In any event, the widespread availability of drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, has resulted in a substantial population of patients consuming multiple different types of drugs at any given time.
Drug interactions remain a principal aspect of the pharmaceutical sciences. A drug interaction is a commonly known situation in which a substance affects the activity of a drug, such that the effects of a given drug is increased or decreased, or the combination of the substance and the drug produce a new effect that neither produces alone. Typically, drug-drug interactions are most unpredictable; however, drug-food interactions also are known to exist between drugs and foods, as well as drug-herb interactions between drugs and herbs.
Generally speaking, it is desirable to avoid drug interactions due to the possibility of a poor or unexpected outcome resulting from the interaction of a drug with another substance. Consequently, known drug interactions often are listed in the literature distributed with a drug. Providing an exhaustive list of drug interactions in literature, however, can be difficult when a substantial number of drug interactions are known to exist. As such, voluminous books have been created as an aggregation of known drug interactions. While the most diligent review of a book of known drug interactions will reveal the requisite information necessary to avoid an undesirable outcome from a drug interaction of a prescribed selection of drugs, in practice it is not reasonable to presume that a dispensary of drugs will consult the requisite literature when dispensing a drug.
Further, for each drug, there may be one or more substances comparable in dosage form, strength, route of administration, quality and performance characteristics, and intended use. Such substances are known as generic substances or generics, which are usually sold at significantly lower prices than their brand name drug equivalents. However, the average consumer may not be aware of the full range of generic drugs available. Moreover, the average consumer may not be able to readily access pricing information for drugs and generic substances to make informed and/or cost effective decisions on their purchases.